Thermia stood outside the collapsed building, a mountain of rubble before her. Men who had heard the destruction walked around, staring.
“Planned demo! Rebuilding on a new foundation!” she yelled toward the onlookers.
The men then discussed their own demo projects as they collected together. They walked off a short while later, each waiting for their turn to discuss a time they built something. Not long after, the rubble shook.
She took cover behind a large piece of debris, as smaller bits were blown away.
When the dust cleared, Ekio stood amongst the stones. She turned to Thermia and nodded. Thermia fist-pumped the air and ran toward her. Yet as she approached, the rubble shook once more, and the wizard rose, a spherical shield of translucent light around him.
“My research!” he screamed, his voice echoing off the surrounding buildings. “I am the Omega! How dare you!” However, his face of rage turned inquisitive. “Wait…How did you two escape the spell? No man has ever escaped it.”
Thermia pointed her finger at him. “It was simple! We just had to do the one thing men are incapable of!”
“What’s that now?”
“Ask for help!”
Omega smiled, and his angry face returned.
“That’s it then? Well, trespassers…I will carry out your sentence here then.” He formed a ball of water at the head of his staff.
“We’ll take your code now,” Ekio said. “Or, you can die.” She removed her dagger and held it in an attack stance.
“Please. You knock over a few rocks and you expect me to tremble?” he said. “I create worlds!” He shot the ball of water towards her, which turned into an arrow. She focused her wind on her edge of the blade and sliced upward, breaking the spell. She then threw her dagger at him, it stuck itself into his shield, the edges cracking around it. When he went to grab it, she commanded it back to her hand.
Thermia cheered from the sidelines.
“Still not trembling?” Ekio said. “I can change that.” She charged and swung at him. Her blows bounced off the shield but each one damaged it.
His staff grew a blade of water that he counter-attacked with. She dodged the blows and continued her assault on the shield. Frustrated, he performed a downward strike that she dodged to the side. When she went to strike back, she found her foot was stuck. The water blade was no longer on the staff but instead wrapped around her foot.
“Shit!” she muttered.
He summoned another blade at the staff’s head. “Oh, you ignorant fool. It seems you're stuck. You almost got through my shield, so I’ll give you credit for that. However, it was foolish to fight the Omega alone.”
She struggled to remove her foot, then looked up at him, and grinned.
“She’s not alone!” Thermia yelled from behind him.
When he turned toward her, Ekio put everything she had into a final punch on his shield, shattering it to pieces. She then summoned her wind power and directed it into his chest. The force sent him flying backward. He tripped over Thermia, who was on her hands and knees behind him, and hit his head on a rock with a loud crack.
“Teamwork beats the wizdork.” Thermia said as she stood and dusted herself off.
The spell around Ekio’s foot broke, so she walked over to Omega to check him.
“Oh no. We need the code from him.”
“Oh, right…Well maybe we’ll find it written down here,” she said as they stood in a pile of rubble. “Or maybe not."
“Wait!” Ekio said, placing a finger on his neck,”He’s still alive.”
Thermia grabbed the staff and tried to cast a spell, which proved fruitless. She tossed it to the side.
“Damn…so close to cool powers.” She sat next to Ekio.
They both carefully watched until his head turned to them.
“I can’t feel my body,” Omega said, his voice weak. “Oh, my research…I’ll never complete my research…”
Thermia felt horrible seeing him feeble like this, despite their previous battle. She grabbed his hand, even though he couldn’t feel it.
“We need that code,” Ekio said. “We’ll send someone to help you when we leave.”
“Code?” he asked. “Who cares about a stupid vault? Power doesn’t come from trinkets. It comes from within us.” He turned his head to the side, looking on the verge of passing out, but Thermia gently grabbed his face, staring into his eyes so he could see hers water.
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“Please. If we don’t get that code…I can never go home,” she said.
Omega closed his eyes for a moment then sighed.
“6969”
She snorted.
Ekio looked puzzled.
“What’s funny?” Ekio asked.
“I’ll tell you later,” Thermia said with a wink.
He winked at her, and they winked back and forth for an awkward amount of time. Ekio and Thermia eventually said their farewells and left.
One step closer to the end.
They walked toward the building where Sparklebutt had said the vault was located. Yet they were both conflicted over the situation they found themselves in. When Omega was lying there on the ground, he seemed like an ordinary old man. They had almost forgotten about the torture he was happy to leave them to.
They didn’t talk to each other on the walk over. They were both stuck in their own heads, thinking about their ordeals. Occasionally looking over and smiling at one another.
When they saw the others in the distance, a wave of relief washed over them. Cadivus performed an exaggerated two-handed wave as they approached.
“Who’s ready for a heist?”
The women noted how rough their clothes looked and how he had changed his pants.
“You guys look, and smell like shit.” Thermia said, plugging her nose.
Ekio made a grossed-out face.
“We had a bit of a run in,” Hunter said. “The important part is we got the code. Did you?”
Thermia giggled.
“Yeah…We got it.”
“There’s our fashionably late comrade!” Cadivus pointed at El, who was walking toward them.
“Okay. Everyone all set then?” El asked the group.
“Uh, no!” Ekio said. “You sent us to the wrong guy. Why did you do that?”
She and Thermia both folded their arms and stared down El.
El put a hand on her hip and smiled.
“Oh! My mistake, girls. I guess I’m just bad with directions. Hence why I’m here and not running important missions.”
She and Thermia both shook their heads.
“The important thing is you did your part. So let’s get inside, and I’ll show you how to enter the codes.”
“Hold on a second,” Cadivus said. “As leader of this group, I feel like I should give a pep talk before we go inside. Listen up! I…” He trailed off as everyone walked past him and into the building. His enthusiasm waned. “Yeah, let’s do it. Whoo.”
No guards were posted at the vault. Shocked, they entered a tall stone room with a giant circular metal door at the opposite side. Large cloths fell from the ceiling to each side of the carpeted walkway.
“I don’t like this one bit,” Hunter said, looking around the room.
“Oh, you worry too much,” El said. “Just use the dials to enter your codes. The symbols above them indicate which code goes where.” She positioned each group in front of their dial.
“Wait a second…” Cadivus said. “There’s a fourth dial...does anyone have a code for it?”
“1234,” a voice from behind them called out.
“Thanks! Okay 1…2…”
The cloths that hung from the ceilings opened from the middle, revealing a group of guards on each side. As the group turned around to face them, they saw yet another man standing behind them. He wore fancy clothing: deep purple pants and shirt with a black jacket with white faded vertical stripes and leather shoes. He smiled and snapped his fingers.
“Cadivus burn em!” Hunter yelled. He moved to remove his gun, but a large man with one arm grabbed him from behind.
“Hello ants!” Sigma said as he laughed.
Ekio pushed Thermia toward the middle of the group and went to remove her dagger, but as she placed a hand on the pommel a strike to the back of her neck knocked her out cold. Thermia looked back. El had delivered the blow.
Thermia growled and charged at her, but El slapped her so hard that she fell to the ground.
Cadivus charged at the newcomer in the fancy suit, but guards swarmed him, each grabbing a different limb. Still, he slowly walked toward the man in the fancy suit, dragging the guards holding him. More guards ran in to tackle him, knocking him to the ground. They tied him up in chains.
Sigma picked Hunter up with his one arm and headbutted him. Blood ran down Hunter’s face as he fell unconscious.
“Why did you do this?” Thermia asked El. “We trusted you, you leather-clad bitch!” El looked at Thermia and laughed, placing her hands on her hips and moving them side to side.
“I’m gonna let you in on a little secret.” El said. Her face and body transformed into a man with pale skin and red eyes. His voice became raspy. “There is no El. Only Gamma.”
“Enough of this!” Cadivus said. “You’ll release us, or you’ll suffer my angry wraith!”
The guards finished wrapping several layers of chains around him and threw him to the floor, face down.
The man in the fancy suit walked over and squatted in front of him.
“Look, kid. My name's Alpha. You’re Cadivus, right?”
“Oh wow! You know my name,” Cadivus said sarcastically. “I feel so special.”
“Yeah…Anyways, I think you’ve got potential, kid. This group though…” He pointed at the others. “Well, I can’t say the same for them. So I’m gonna make you a one-time offer here, and realize I never do this.”
“If the offer is we all get to watch you punch your own dick repeatedly, then yes, I accept.”
He laughed and looked around the room until everyone else laughed with him. When he snapped his fingers, they all stopped.
“Listen, you’ve had a tough life buddy. Nobody respects you, least of all these people. They won’t even consider the possibility you’ll get them out of this. I’m guessing you have been feeling down lately, trying to figure out a direction in life. Is that true?”
Cadivus had to acknowledge there was truth to that statement.
“I know, kid. We all crave love and respect as men, hell I’ll even say as people! A younger me wouldn’t have. Now, what do you see when you look at me? Some guy at the head of a great city? Who has all these extraordinary gentlemen? ‘He must be a super villain with amazing powers!’ Well, my super power is wealth…and for a small investment each month I can teach you the same strategies I’ve usd to gain this wealth. And if—”
“Pass!” Cadivus shouted.
A shocked look came over Alpha.
“I don’t fucking care about any of this dribble. Release us now, and you can larp another day.”
He frowned and nodded.
“Too bad kid. Hoist 'em up!”
Guards attached Cadivus to a hook that hung from the ceiling. Hunter was tied up in ropes, and the women were strapped to odd-looking tables that were standing up with wires running through them. The guards ripped their fake facial hair off, causing their skin to turn red.
“You should have said yes, kid.”
Cadivus was lifted into the air, where he could see everything. Including a large lid being removed from a hole in the ground. An orange glow emanated from it. Lava. It was lava, and he was heading straight toward it.